Meta

Archive for August, 2016

After spending four months in federal prison for non cooperation with the system after getting arrested for protesting against U.S. nuclear weapons policy and its imperial war-making last August 9 at Vandenberg, Jeff Dietrich (from the Los Angeles Catholic Worker) was released this morning. He was welcomed home with a homecoming party. It was an emotional time for Jeff. Guadalupe Catholic Worker Dennis Apel remains incarcerated for one more week.

The LACW along with the Guadalupe CW, and Veterans for Peace, gathered at Vandenberg to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

During the vigil portion of our gathering, LACW’s Mike Wisniewski and Karan Benton were approached by base security and warned that they were in violation of Ban and Bar letters (Letters from the base commander notifying them that because of previous arrests at the base they were now banned and barred from entering the base without written permission from the base commander.) They were asked to leave immediately or face arrest. Mike chose to leave the protest area while Karan refused to leave and was immediately arrested.

Later, after the vigil and prayer service, LACW Jed Poole and Veterans for Peace member Chris Knudson intentionally crossed the green line marking the lawful protest area, processed down the base road and were arrested near the visitors center.

While those arrests were taking place, LACW David Omondi walked onto the street without the intention of being arrested, but was nevertheless arrested without warning. All were sited for trespass and released 30 minutes later at Vandenberg Village, seven miles from the base gate. Court dates will be scheduled at a later date.
(Click on photos once or twice for high resolution viewing.)